#NewHymn: Oh, The All-Consuming Torrent

Hey, y'all! I know it's not a very catchy title, but I'm so excited to share this new hymn with you. I wrote it a few days ago as I was reading old hymn texts. Although I've written quite a few songs for congregational singing, this is my first one written in hymn form. I hope you enjoy it.

I botched one word on the demo. The correct words are on the sub-titles. Also, the chords that I play are a little different than the chords on the chart. Such is the nature of playing live.

If you enjoyed the song and would like to use it in your church or personal worship time, here's an MP3 demo, lead sheet, and chord chart. If you do use it, please let me know how it goes or send me a video of your congregation singing the song.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Emmanuel - New Song Demo

Hey, y'all! Here's a new song I co-wrote earlier this week with my friend, Casey Halbgewachs. This is one of two songs that we wrote this week and one of five songs that we've written together. You've already heard one of our earlier songs, "All We Need". I hope you enjoy this one as well. This is a rough, live demo of the song. 



Look for a full production demo and charts on PraiseCharts and Bandcamp soon.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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[NEW SONG] Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - new song for Advent

Hey, Y'all! Here's another new song for Advent. It is a new setting of a 15th Century Carol with new music and text. I hope you enjoy it. It's so new that I don't have a YouTube video for it yet. You can listen to it via my Bandcamp site. If you like it, please go buy the track and share it with your friends and family. If you purchase the media package, you'll also get a guitar chord chart.

Thanks so much for your support!

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Christian Song Competition - I Need Your Help

Hey, y'all! This is new territory for me. I have entered four of my songs, including one previously-unreleased song, in the 2013 Christian Song Competition and I need your support. It's always awkward asking for help but it's probably good for me. Anyway, here's the deal: The top ten songs in each category will be selected based on their number of plays, likes, and comments via the Soundcloud format that they're using to host the contest. I have created a playlist of my songs that are entered in the contest. The songs entered in the contest are in a [SONG TITLE - TOBY BAXLEY] format, so I need you to specifically pay attention to those particular songs. You can listen all you like to that playlist and I encourage you to do so. However, there is a "like" button with a heart on the playlist. You're welcome and encouraged to click on that button, but I also need you to go to each individual song in the playlist and "like" them and leave comments below the interactive wave form graphic.

Do do all this, you'll need a Soundcloud account. It is free and easy. All they want is an email address and a passcode. They'll send you an email confirmation link but you're not obligated to them any further after that. If you want to hear the other entries in the contest you can go to the contest page. Don't listen to them too much so as not to boost their play counts! :)

Please "follow" my stream on Soundcloud, while you're at it!

Please leave me a comment or contact me if you have any trouble signing in or making comments. 

Here are the links again:

Contest page: https://soundcloud.com/groups/worship-song-2013
My playlist: https://soundcloud.com/toby-baxley/sets/christian-song-competition
Behold the Lamb - https://soundcloud.com/toby-baxley/behold-the-lamb-toby-baxley
Perfectly Well - https://soundcloud.com/toby-baxley/perfectly-well
Jesus Is Alive - https://soundcloud.com/toby-baxley/jesus-is-alive-toby-baxley
Justified - https://soundcloud.com/toby-baxley/justified-toby-baxley

Justified is a new song that is a favorite at church, but I haven't released yet. Enjoy! Please share this in your social circles as well.

Thank you so much for your support!

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[VIDEO] Holy, Holy, Holy (Filled With Your Glory) - New Hymn

Hey, y'all! I want to share a little project I've been working on. I intended to record and release this tune on the hymns album that I recorded at my church. However, my computer dropped out during the live recording and I might should have cut and picked up where it dropped out. I didn't do that at the time and, last week, decided to record a full band version.

I hope you enjoy it.



Thank you for watching. Please comment, like, share, tweet, and whatever else you do if you're so inclined. If you're interested in downloading the audio, including accompaniment tracks, and a click/loop track, go here.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Hymns With Friends, Volume 1

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Over the weekend, our church had a Hymn Sing event. We started with a good ol' pot luck dinner and then gathered up for a time of singing timeless songs of faith. I had the idea to record our time together and the recording turned out better than I could have imagined. I had thought about recording some additional vocals or instruments but, after listening to the recordings, I decided that to add anything to it would take away from the vibe. You can listen to the album right here:

The album is available for immediate download from my Bandcamp page. While you're there, you can pre-order a physical CD, which have not been ordered yet. The pre-orders will determine how many CDs I order. When you pre-order a CD, you will get an immediate download of the album for free. Order a bunch for stocking stuffers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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The Healing Power of Jesus (And Magnets)

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I'd like to apologize in advance. This is more of a rant than my usual blog post. I saw this ad in the USA Weekend newspaper insert a couple of months ago and felt like I needed to say something about it. Here goes:

Using the Lord's name in vain. It's more subtle than you might think. It's more serious than a few choice exclamations that spew from our mouths or from the movie or television screen. Using the Lord's name in vain is about attaching His Name to something that He wouldn't. Why is the Lord's name so important? It's because His name describes His nature and character. When the Lord told Moses, "I AM THAT I AM," He was saying that for every hurt, for every need, for every joy, for every sorrow, He is enough.

Why would we want to cheapen His nature and character by stamping the name of Jesus on a copper and magnet bracelet. The obvious reason is for personal gain. The advertiser is using the fact that our God is Adonai Rophe (The LORD our Healer) to make some money.

Aren't there other ways we misuse the Lord's name?

How about false prophecy? "The Lord said..." or "God told me" or "God gave me this (song/needlepoint/underwater woven basket)". Do I believe God still speaks? Absolutely! He speaks in accordance with the Scripture and in accordance with His nature and character. I don't believe that God writes bad songs. The book of Psalms is proof of that. However there are some terrible songs floating around out there that God supposedly gave someone. We use this God cloak as a defense mechanism. We want to believe that invoking God's name elevates our idea, our song, our needlepoint above scrutiny. I believe that God gives us talent and creativity to use for His glory. Let's take ownership of our crafts and not try to blame God for our bad art.

"I'm a Christian plumber." I believe that identifying yourself as a Christian plumber, or carpenter, or mechanic, or lawyer is another subtle way of using the Lord's name in vain. It is meant to give your potential customer some sense of comfort knowing that a Jesus-approved professional is coming to their aid. Unfortunately, many so-called Christian professionals are careless at their jobs and have misrepresented the character of the One they supposedly represent. Just be excellent at your job, whatever it is, and use the respect you earn as an avenue to share the gospel.

There are many more subtle ways that we use the Lord's name in vain. I've only listed the ones that I'm not personally guilty of.

That, my friends, was a joke.

Over to you: In what other ways (whether blatant or subtle) do we misuse the Lord's name? Discuss amongst yourselves.

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[VIDEO] New song - Justified

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Hey, friends! I'm excited to share a new song with you. I wrote it a couple of weeks ago and I'm really pleased with it. I had been sitting on this one line, "We, who deserve death, find ourselves swimming in a sea of forgiveness," for months. I did not know where to go with the song but, months later, I stumbled upon a chorus idea. I was really excited to be able to put the two ideas together. I think this is possibly my best song to date. It is definitely my most doctrinally-formative songs. Here's a video of me leading the song at Bethel Bible Church Arbor Campus in Tyler, Texas yesterday. Under the video, you'll see a link to download my acoustic demo and a lyric/chord chart.

or click here to view the files.

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[Song Demo] Rend The Heavens - Re-post

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I'm convicted that we need revival.

I'm convicted that the key to revival is not a few catchy songs. It is the people of God coming together in brokenness and praying for mercy and forgiveness and for God to restore the years the locusts have eaten. The lost will see and hear and know there is a God and fall down before Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

[Video] New Song - Let Us Fix Our Eyes

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Here is a new original song for worship. I wrote the lyric based on a passage in Hebrews 12. It is a short song, so I used it in the place of a spoken exhortation or scripture reading between songs. Hope you enjoy!

[Video] New Song - Behold The Lamb

Here is a new song I wrote back in January. I'm glad to share it with you. Take a look:



Behold The Lamb by Toby Baxley
© Copyright 2011 Toby Baxley (admin. by PraiseCharts Publishing, Inc.)

CLICK HERE to download the MP3 and sheet music. The first 15 commenters will receive a download link via email to download the music for free.

Go In the Strength You Have

Judges 6:14 The Lord turned to [Gideon] and said, "Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you?"

This verse jumped off the page to me as I was reading the scriptures a couple of days ago. It seems so relevant to where I am in my journey right now. That may seem like a stretch to say, but bear with me.

Amazing, But I'm Not Sure Why

I may ramble a bit here, but I would like to tell you what has me fired up these last couple of days. I just finished the book, Quitter, by Jon Acuff. If you recall, Jon is the writer of a couple of other books, most notably Stuff Christians Like. The point of Quitter is basically, "Don't quit your day job." I, like many, falsely believed the lie that in order to pursue my dream of being a songwriter/recording artist, I would have to quit my steady, full-time job and live on faith and ramen noodles to make my dream come true. In fact, other leadership authors have basically said the same thing. The most clear message I had in my head was "leap and the net will appear". That may be the case, but I think that message is incomplete. It should go something like "leap at the right time and the net will appear" or "build a net, then climb the ladder and leap." Anyway, I told you I might ramble.